90 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



regarded as an extinct family in tliis quapter of the globe, their 

 only living representatives being found in other waters. 



The following are the salient points of the Gonoplacidce, as given 

 by Milne-Edwards, the great authority on the Crustacea : — The 

 carapace is either square or rhomboidal and much wider than long^ 

 the posterior border measured between the base of the fifth pair of 

 legs equals nearly the half of its transverse diameter, internal antennae 

 always horizontal, the peduncles of the eyes are long, the gronto- 

 orbital border occupies nearly the whole transverse diameter of the 

 carapace, abdomen of the male more than usually narrow, and 

 instead of extending to the basilary joint of the posterior feet, it 

 leaves exposed a considerable portion of the sternal plastron 

 between its outer edge and the base of those feet ; the length of 

 the anterior feet varies — it is sometimes very considerable — and 

 those of third or fourth pair are always the longest. The genus 

 " Gonoplax," in addition to the general characters of the family, 

 is distinguished by the fact that the fourth joint of the external 

 " jaw-feet " is inserted at the internal angle of the third joint. 



And now to come at last to the particular species of 

 " Gonoplax " found at Corio Bay. As I have given specimens of 

 it to Prof. M'Coy, and understand that he intends publishing a 

 proper scientific description of the crab in a future number of the 

 Decades — it being altogether a new species — I shall not attempt to 

 do anything more to-night than to give such a rough and ready 

 description of it as will enable any young member of the F.N.C.^ 

 with a turn for paleontological research to identify it. Briefly^ 

 then, the carapace is about 2 inches wide by 1 inch long, and the 

 anterior corners of it are produced into a spinous termination on 

 each side ; the upper surface is rather convex, showing a slightly 

 prominent ridge right across it, and parallel with the general 

 outline of the front border, and about a third of the length of the 

 whole carapace from it, and another parallel ridge half-way between 

 the last ridge and the hinder border of the carapace, but prominent- 

 only in the middle or just in front of the cardaic region. The 

 front (or rostrum) is squared or truncated and lamellar or plate- 

 like. The eye-stalks are comparatively short. The chel« or claw- 

 limbs are very large, and very strong, and the hands and fingers 

 themselves are also very large, strong, and much compressed, and, 

 of the four pairs of walking-legs, which are of considerable size,. 

 the second pair, or the next but one to the chela?, are the largest, 

 the two front pairs of these walking-legs being rather rounded 

 like the legs of the genus " Phlyxia," and the two hinder pairs are 

 more compressed ; all the four pairs of walking-legs are terminated 

 by a pointed toe. I should mention that the front and the side 

 borders of the carapace are marked by minute granulations, and so 

 are the upper sides of the chel£e and walking-legs. 



